Entertainment

The Starter Guide to Classic Black and White Films

Classic films can be intimidating. The era of iconic flicks before roughly the 1960s was largely dominated by black and white movies, which come with a certain level of culture shock for those who aren't used to the different aesthetics.

Aside from the lack of color, you must adjust to hand-drawn title cards, fake sets, that persistent classical music in the background, and a completely different acting style. It's especially intimidating to watch a film for the first time when it stars one of those legendary Hollywood actors like Humphrey Bogart or Katharine Hepburn.

But once you make it past the culture shock, classic movies are amazing. Honestly, at their core, they're just like movies today.

If you want to start watching black and white films but aren't sure what to start with, try these classics that are famous, but also well-loved and widely accessible (though not all are black and white). To help you out, there's also a recommendation guide that compares these classics to similar, newer films. Spoiler Warning: some spoilers were inevitable while making these recommendations.

Old Movies

James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause is the baddest bad boy in film history. He's a cool outsider who's undeniably hot and doesn't let anyone tell him what to do. Along with Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, he gets into some serious trouble.

Recommended if you like movies about teenage rebellion: breaking rules, running away, throwing parties, or generally brooding in resentment. Think Superbad, Youth in Revolt or The Breakfast Club.

Also recommended if you like cinema bad boys: Ferris Bueller from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Tyler Durden from Fight Club or Donnie from Donnie Darko.

Two out of work musicians (Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis) can't get work, until they hear of a job posting for an all girl band and decide to cross-dress and apply. They realize it's a great way to be around girls (like Marilyn Monroe), but end up attracting unwanted attention from men. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are also side-splittingly funny in this classic farce.

Recommended if you like comedies in which people cross-dress (Mrs. Doubtfire, Tootsie), especially movies in which cross-dressers become star-crossed, like She's the Man.

George and Martha have never had a good relationship, but one night, while entertaining a younger couple, years of tension blow up and they viciously tear each other apart.

Recommended if you like movies in which couples or families tear each other apart, like Revolutionary Road, Mildred Pierce or Intolerable Cruelty.

Image: Apic/Contributor/Moviepix/Getty Images

If you like movies about unlikely friends or opposites that attract, try The Odd Couple

Oscar and Felix are one of the original odd couples -- two completely opposite personality types that are thrown together and form an unlikely friendship. These bachelor friends move in together after Felix's divorce, and every day, they try not to drive each other crazy type having polar opposite personalities.

Recommended if you like movies with couples or friends that prove opposites attract, like Bridget Jones' Diary (based on another original odd couple from Pride and Prejudice), Dirty Dancing or 10 Things I Hate About You.

Director Frank Capra was the master of feel-good films. You Can't Take It With You is a double whammy: A woman (Jean Arthur) takes her fiancé (Jimmy Stewart) home to meet her family, who happen to be a bunch of lunatics which almost scares him away. Plus, her soon-to-be father-in-law is also a CEO who is trying to buy out Jean Arthur's entire neighborhood for real estate development.

You'd like You Can't Take It With You if you like feel-good movies like Matilda, Field of Dreams or Billy Elliot.

Recommended if you enjoy movies like Meet the Parents -- especially if said parents are crazy and hilarious like in The Birdcage.

Also recommended if you like movies in which close-knit communities try to defend something they love from big corporations (You've Got Mail, Be Kind Rewind).

You'd also like this if you like big ensemble comedies like Bridesmaids or Anchorman.

Image: Archive Photos/Stringer/Moviepix/Getty Images

If you like movies about dysfunctional families or misunderstood murderers, try Arsenic and Old Lace.

Cary Grant's two sweet, old spinster aunts are serial killers. But they think they're killing for a good reason. Add a brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and you've got a dysfunctional family.

Recommended if you like movies with killers who are misunderstood, or at least have a good reason for killing (Thelma and Louise, Carrie).

Also recommended if you like movies about dysfunctional families (The Royal Tenenbaums, Little Miss Sunshine) -- especially if those families have dark secrets (Flowers in the Attic, August Osage County).

A wealthy socialite (Katharine Hepburn) tries to choose between the three men in her life: her ex-husband (Cary Grant), her new fiancé (John Howard), and a reporter covering the upcoming wedding (Jimmy Stewart).

Recommended if you like movies with love triangles, like Reality Bites, Rushmore or Bend It Like Beckham.

Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's were the first Manic Pixie Dream Girls.

Susan Vance from Bringing Up Baby is a motormouth, happy-go-lucky heiress with a pet leopard who tries to get a paleontologist (Cary Grant) to have some fun. Holly Golightly is a glamorous party girl who plays the guitar. She'll do anything to avoid her problems, including towing a struggling writer (George Peppard) around New York on whimsical adventures.

Recommended if you like MPDG films like (500) Days of Summer, Elizabethtown and Garden State.

Poor Blanche DuBois. Nothing in her life every goes right, even when she's trying so hard to start over. She's done some questionable things, but we root for her nonetheless.

Recommended if you like movies with anti-heroes, or movies in which things go wrong for the character over and over (and over). Think basically anything by the Coen Brothers, but especially Inside Llewyn Davis or A Serious Man.

Also recommended if you enjoy movies with unlikeable protagonists who we still root for or at least feel bad for (American Beauty).

But especially recommended if you like Blue Jasmine, as Jasmine bears a striking similarity to Blanche DuBois.

Image: Hulton Archive/Stringer/Moviepix/Getty Images

If you like movies in which the protagonist gets a makeover, try Funny Face.

Audrey Hepburn's character in Funny Face was the original hipster. She works at a bookstore in the Village called Embryo Concepts and dresses really mod. Then Fred Astaire discovers her and wants to turn her into a model. She gets a glamorous makeover, but still spends her free time dancing in Paris clubs, wearing a black catsuit.

Recommended if you like movies that makeover underdog characters to make them pretty or more popular, like The Princess Diaries, She's All That or The Devil Wears Prada.

Image: Mondadori/Contributor/Mondadori/Getty Images

If you like movies in which a character falls in unrequited love with a friend, try The Apartment.

An office pushover (Jack Lemmon) gets pressured into lending his apartment to his philandering co-workers as a private pad for their affairs. When he sees his beautiful colleague (Shirley Jones) strung along by one of these jerks, he tries to help, but ends up falling for her.

Recommended if you like movies in which characters fall for someone who sees them as just a friend or is in love with someone else (13 Going on 30, Just Friends, Pretty in Pink, My Best Friend's Wedding) especially if the object of his affection is out of his league (Can't Hardly Wait, Say Anything). Bonus points for Hitch, which not only has an "out of his league" story line, but also has a matchmaker who falls for someone himself.

Image: Hulton Archive/Stringer/Moviepix/Getty Images

If you like thrillers, mysteries, or horror movies, try anything Hitchcock or Film Noir.

If you are a thriller/horror/mystery/suspense person, go back to where it all started with the works of Alfred Hitchcock -- especially Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Dial M for Murder and The 39 Steps.

Also try classic noir like The Third Man and The Maltese Falcon.

Recommended if you like films like Shutter Island, Stoker, Silence of the Lambs, The Prestige, Black Swan, Chinatown, Seven, Disturbia, Eagle Eye and The Two Faces of January.

Image: Paramount Pictures/Handout/Moviepix/Getty Images

If you like movies with delusional characters that have mental breakdowns, try Sunset Boulevard.

Witness the slow decline of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), which culminates in one of the most famous breakdown scenes in film history.

Recommended if you like movies in which the protagonists go slowly insane. Think mental breakdown (Girl, Interrupted, Rachel Getting Married) or something even crazier you can't even really describe it (The Shining, Black Swan).

Also recommended if you like movies with delusional protagonists (Grey Gardens, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Lars and the Real Girl). Bonus points for 50 First Dates, which also features a mentally ill protagonist who has an elaborate system of lies constructed around her.

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